Soccer mom? Minivan? Entertainment center in a minivan? X-Box?

What do all these have in common? In countries where education surpasses us these terms may not even be understood. These terms all have to do with providing distractions to children during the time that has been traditionally been devoted to learning.

Have we placed “Entertainment” on a pedestal and replaced education as the chief priority for our children? It would appear to be so. Even in our “schools” there is a great deal of emphasis, or diversion, to entertainment.

Why is it that there are far more adults attending a little league, or soccer match than attending a school board meeting when the schools are failing many of these same children who are playing soccer or baseball? Do the parents think that there are better futures for their kids by improving their soccer or baseball skills than improving their Algebra or French skills?

Perhaps we should have programs like Little League, for French? Should we have learning programs that we could install in minivans? Neither of these concepts probably makes much sense to most parents. Would they make sense to parents in those countries that have done so well? I would guess that they are already there, except, wait! In those countries kids aren’t going to soccer practice after school, they are going to another school!

As has been mentioned here, a parental poll found that most parents were concerned that their children were “Satisfied” with their school. Walt Disney does an excellent job of “Satisfying” children! “Grand Theft Auto” seems to work well with some older kids. Some kids seem to only attend school to “Play” sports and even go so far as to suggest that they have selected colleges where they can go and “Play” a sport!

Aren’t these some clear indications that “Entertainment” has surpassed knowledge as the objective of many parents and students? Is it any wonder that in some of the competitions such as “Spelling Bee’s” and “Geography Bee’s” the winners are often home schoolers? Could it be that home schooled students are in it for “Learning” and not for “Playing?” Could it be that the learning environment for these children is more focused on acquisition of knowledge than our schools?

I was having a discussion with one of my friends the other day. He pointed out that the schools are clearly the finest, and cheapest, daycare centers ever invented! With any other daycare center you have to bring your kid to the center, pay for their attendance, and then pick them up at the end of the day! At our schools all of these services, as well as perhaps two meals are provided.

This has allowed the parents the “Freedom” to disassociate themselves from a substantial obligation for training children! The results of this are pretty well known.

Our now retired Superintendent I believe pointed out that the most successful students in our district were attending schools where they had to provide their own transportation. Public Academy, International Baccalaureate Program, Technology Access, and Aviation High School are prefect examples of this. Parents, in most cases, have taken the time to research what is best for their children and sometimes sacrificed their lifestyles to make sure that their children are “Educated” as opposed to being “Satisfied.” I am sure that parents would be far more “Satisfied” if they could use the daycare offerings of the school district, but they have decided that their address did not determine the best options for their children.

What Ogbu stated isn’t a practice of involved parents. Ogbu stated, “Parents feel it is their role to move to Shaker Heights, pay the higher taxes so their kids could graduate from Shaker, and that's where their role stops."

Sadly, as measured by school board attendance vs Little League attendance, we seem to have a much higher concern about “hitting the ball” than we do about mastering some French verbs.

The outcome of this distortion of values has placed Washington at 35th in the nation in high school completion. How good is our ranking at Little League? Our Soccer Moms are working hard on this!